Pre-Bell｜S&P, Nasdaq Futures Advance; Tesla Jumps Nearly 2%; AMD, Alibaba Gain Around 3%; Bit Digital Rises 4%; Nebius Pops 5%

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes advanced early on Thursday, a day after weaker-than-expected private payrolls data bolstered hopes for interest rate cuts, while traders braced for a data-light session due to the U.S. government shutdown.

Investors remain sensitive to any signal of policy easing, with rate-cut optimism underpinning much of the recent rally that has taken equities to high valuations.

Market Snapshot

At 8:37 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 32 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 14.25 points, or 0.21%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 115.25 points, or 0.46%.

Pre-Market Movers

Tesla was rising 1.86% in premarket trading ahead of third-quarter deliveries from the electric-vehicle maker. Wall Street expects around 448,000 deliveries in the period, up from 384,000 in the second quarter. Buyers rushed to purchase electric cars ahead of the expiration Tuesday of the $7,500 federal EV purchase tax credit. Tesla shares rose 3.3% on Wednesday and have closed higher for four consecutive sessions, rising 8.5% over the period.

Occidental Petroleum was up 1.5% after the oil-and-gas company agreed to sell its chemical division, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion in cash to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

AMD stock continued to rise 3.3% in premarket trading. Intel is in early talks to add AMD as a foundry customer, Semafor reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chinese ETFs and ADRs jumped in premarket trading as signs of stabilisation in the property sector and gains in technology firms boosted sentiment. YINN, Baidu up 4%; Alibaba up 3%; XPeng, NIO, JD.com up around 2%.

Fair Isaac, the credit scoring service provider, rose 20% after it unveilednew pricing modelsthat would allow companies providing credit reports to directly access FICO scores, thereby bypassing credit bureaus likeEquifax,TransUnionandExperian. Jefferies analysts predicted the move would lead to growth in adjusted per-share earnings of between 20% and 25% for Fair Isaac. Equifax and TransUnion tumbled 11% and 11%, respectively. Experian declined 6.8% in London trading.

Fermi, which aims to power AI data centers with natural gas plants and nuclear reactors,was rising 14% in premarket trading to $37 after closing up nearly 55% to $32.53 in the Nasdaq-listed stock’strading debut Wednesday. Fermi’s initial public offering was priced late Tuesday at $21 a share.

Nvidia, the leading maker of artificial-intelligence chips, rose 1.3%. It follows a 0.3% gain for Nvidia in the previous session to a record closing high of $187.21. Shares of the chip maker have risen nearly 40% so far this year, amid several recent deal with companies like OpenAI andIntel.

Nebius stock rose 6% in premarket trading. Microsoft Corp.’s deal with neocloud company Nebius Group NV will provide computing power to internal teams creating large language models and a consumer AI assistant, according to people familiar with the situation.

Crypto stocks jumped in premarket trading as Bitcoin rose to $119K, and Ethereum rallied to $4,400. BIT Mining, Bit Digital up around 4%; Circle, Bullish, MARA, Strategy, CleanSpark up around 2%.

Newmont rose 0.8%. The gold miner rose 2% on Wednesday and closed at a record high of $85.95. Shares have risen 131% this year, putting them on pace for their best year on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Newmont has followed gold prices higher, which set a fresh high Wednesday.

Kodiak AI was up 13% to $6.74. Soros Fund Management acquired a 5.7% passive stake in the artificial-intelligence company.

Market News

US Layoffs Fall in September but Year-to-Date Planned Hiring at Lowest in 16 Years

U.S. employers announced fewer layoffs in September but hiring plans so far this year were the lowest since 2009, a report said on Thursday, adding to evidence of a labor market standstill as the demand and supply of workers fall because of policy and technology advances.

The report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas does not normally attract much attention. But together with other private data, it has become more prominent due to a U.S. government shutdownthat has led to major economic releases being suspended, including the closely watched employment report for September that was due on Friday.